Bringing professional video to WP Courseware customers

WP Courseware is the most-used learning management system plugin. It allows WordPress users to easily create and manage interactive online courses with a drag and drop interface. If you’re familiar with creating posts and pages on WordPress, then WP Courseware’s learning curve is a small one.

Bringing professional video to WP Courseware customers

WP Courseware is the most-used learning management system plugin. It allows WordPress users to easily create and manage interactive online courses with a drag and drop interface. If you’re familiar with creating posts and pages on WordPress, then WP Courseware’s learning curve is a small one.

Powerful features such as course protection, content dripping, quiz creation, student management, and course certificates make WP Courseware an invaluable tool for site owners who need an LMS. Over 92% of WP Courseware’s customers use video as the primary way of teaching their students, but most users either embed YouTube videos or add videos from their WordPress Media Library. Unfortunately, neither of these methods is ideal.

YouTube is not the answer ▶

YouTube is problematic because when a user embeds a video from YouTube onto their website, YouTube’s video player is designed to distract and lure viewers away from that site. YouTube uses its own icons, buttons, overlays and logos, as well as ‘Related Videos’ that appear when a viewer pauses or finishes a video. So even though YouTube is free and offers decent playback quality, it steals your viewers. No free video player is worth the cost of losing engaged viewers.

stealing-from-baby

Convenient, but unoptimized 🐌

Adding videos from the WordPress Media Library can seem like a good alternative to YouTube. However, while the WordPress player does not siphon off your viewers, it provides a poor playback experience. Videos from the WP Media Library start slow, frequently stall out, and buffer extensively. And from analyzing metrics of over 500 million video views, we know that a viewer who experiences buffering while watching a video online watches 277% less video than a viewer who doesn’t.

buffering-1

So how should WP Courseware customers add videos to their courses? Should they use YouTube and lose a steady percentage of their viewers, or should they use the WP Media Library and risk poor quality playback and unengaged users? The answer is that neither will work well.

You might feel really confused right about now but stay with me.

The solution ✔

YouTube and the WordPress Media Library both make managing and storing content easy, but they do a poor job of delivering that content to viewers. That’s where SmartVideo comes in. We’ve partnered with WP Courseware to bring amazing video experiences to their users without sacrificing the system’s ease of use. With SmartVideo, you can keep using YouTube or your WP Media Library, and let us take care of keeping your viewers engaged and offering excellent quality playback.

Keep your existing workflow 👨‍💻

If you currently use YouTube, all you need to do is install the SmartVideo plugin. It will automatically convert all of the YouTube videos in your current and future courses (and on your site) to our accelerated, clutter-free SmartVideo player.

wp-courseware-youtube

If you want to use the WP Media Library, simply add your video to the WP Media Library, install the SmartVideo plugin, and use the Add SmartVideo button that will be visible in the WP editor. SmartVideo will virtually eliminate loading and buffer times, offering viewers a premium video experience.

wp-courseware-media-library

You can even use another source such as Amazon S3, Google Drive, or Dropbox. Just click the Add SmartVideo button, Add video from another source, and paste the video’s URL ending in .mp4. The video will be automatically downloaded, encoded, stored, and delivered from our global delivery network.

WP Courseware enables WordPress users to quickly build professional courses for their sites. SmartVideo enables WordPress users to quickly build professional video experiences for their sites. We’re excited to see how users will take advantage of our integration while creating unique learning experiences.

In honor of our partnership, for a limited time, SmartVideo customers can purchase WP Courseware for 30% off the regular price using the promo code: SMARTVIDEO30

Just visit WP Courseware's website to learn more and take advantage of the offer.

If you have any questions, shoot me a message at james @ swarmify.com 📧